Dolan played British serial killer Rosemary West in the controversial ITV drama Appropriate Adult in 2011, receiving critical acclaim and a BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress.

On stage, she starred as Loretta in Chalet Lines, written by Lee Mattinson, at the Bush Theatre. In 2013, she portrayed twin sisters Meg and Maeve Carter in the BBC TV series Call the Midwife. More recently, she appeared in W1A (a three-series follow-up to BBC2’s BAFTA-winning comedy series Twenty Twelve), as Senior Communications Officer Tracey Pritchard.

In 2016, Dolan appeared as Janet McIntyre in the BBC two-part drama The Witness for the Prosecution, an Agatha Christie play adapted for television by Sarah Phelps.

In 2017, she made guest appearances in Catastrophe, Death in Paradise and Strike, whilst also writing and starring in her debut one-woman play, The B*easts at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The play run went on to win an Edinburgh Stage Award.

In 2018, Dolan made a guest appearance in an episode of the fourth series of Inside No 9, followed by playing Marion Thorpe in the critically acclaimed miniseries A Very English Scandal. The B*easts also transferred for a limited London run at the Bush Theatre.

June 2020 saw her appearing in the remade television series of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads on BBC One. In one of two newly-written episodes, Dolan performed a monologue in “The Shrine”. This was one of the episodes staged at London’s Bridge Theatre in September 2020, with Dolan reprising her role.